After-Hours Discussion

Join three of Queensland’s prominent and internationally acclaimed artists as they explore the melting pot that is the Queensland arts scene. Has the unique environmental, social, and political backdrop of this state shaped them into the artists they are today?

Guests include:

• D Harding
• Gordon Hookey
• Megan Cope
• Host: Cheryl Leavy

Exhibition viewing of ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’ held from 5.00 – 6.00pm, prior to the event commencing at 6.00pm.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Daniel Browning is no longer participating in this event.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

D Harding

D Harding works in a wide variety of media to explore the visual and social languages of their communities as cultural continuum. A descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples, they draw upon and maintain the spiritual and philosophical sensibilities of their cultural inheritance within the framework of contemporary art internationally.

Gordon Hookey

Waanyi artist Gordon Hookey began to practise art in the early 1990s. As a member of the ground-breaking proppaNOW artist collective, Hookey’s signature is his inimitable humour that manifests in puns, alliteration and poetic verse. A vocal contributor to the Aboriginal protest movement since the 1980s, more recently, Hookey’s protest banners — emblazoned with witty colloquialisms — have been seen at Brisbane rallies and later appeared in an institutional exhibition.

Megan Cope

Megan Cope is a Quandamooka woman (North Stradbroke Island) in South East Queensland. Her site-specific sculptural installations, video work, and paintings investigate issues relating to identity, the environment and mapping practices.

Cheryl Leavy

Cheryl Leavy is from the Kooma and Nguri Nations in western and central Queensland. Cheryl was the 2022 winner of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize and has been published in Cordite. She has been commissioned by and performed her poetry with the Queensland Chamber Orchestra, the Institute of Modern Art, the Queensland Art Gallery and Queensland University of Technology Art Museum. An inaugural winner of the First Nations Writers Network Fellowship at Varuna, Cheryl’s first children’s book, Yanga – Mother, will be published by UQP this year and is written in her Kooma/Guwamu language. Her second, For You, Country will be published in 2025.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Here’s what to expect at this event.

Everyone is welcome! Please contact events.plus@qagoma.qld.gov.au in advance of the program if you have any access needs or queries about the event. Find out more about Accessibility at QAGOMA and planning your visit.

Participation and content

• Content warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are respectfully advised that the ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’ exhibition contains images of ancestors, now deceased, and references to strong themes of colonial frontier violence.
• You are welcome to come with a friend or by yourself. Many people attend the Gallery solo.
• We ask all attendees to be kind, respectful, and courteous to all participants, speakers and staff at this event. This program will be monitored by QAGOMA staff to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our attendees, speakers and staff.

Sensory aspects

• Speakers will use an amplified microphone. Please let us know in advance if you are hard of hearing so we can make this talk accessible for you.
• We try our best to minimise sound in the space, but sometimes there might be low level noise from a nearby artwork or the sounds of the Gallery.
• Chairs with backs will be available.
• This event has a capacity of 100 attendees.
• The Gallery air conditioning is set to 21°C to conserve the artworks.
• This event will be photographed by QAGOMA staff. If you do not wish to be photographed, please advise a QAGOMA staff member on arrival.

Left to right: Cheryl Leavy | D Harding / Photograph: Joshua Maguire | Megan Cope / Photograph: Rhett Hammerton | Gordon Hookey / Photograph: J Rucki